REILY TOWNSHIP, Ohio – Rosie, the cow, went for a drink of water, but ended up spending the night stuck in a pond.  

Wally Minges and his son, Wally Jr., noticed recently Rosie, one of their cows, was missing. After looking in the pasture they found her stuck in the muck of a pond. 

“We got a pond out in the pasture for the cattle to wade in, but of course, with 40 some days of no rain, it is dried up,” Minges said. “She decided she was going to wade out into it to get some water and got stuck in the muck. Evidently, she was in it all night. The only thing exposed was about three inches of her back, and she had her head up above the mud.

“I called 911 and requested a large animal rescue,” he explained. “They responded, and they were here in about 12 minutes. They put boards down so they could get out to her safely.”

They got a rope halter on her head, said Reily Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief Dennis Conrad. Reily Township is a rural community. The fire department has had its share of large animal rescues, so they know what to do and have rigged up the necessary equipment.

“All that was sticking out was her neck,” Conrad said. “We put platforms down so we could get to her head; we got a halter on her, and then we took a garden hose with tubes we have made up that we can shoot air or water through. We kept pumping water down beside her legs in the mud to break the suction.”

Four men tried pulling by hand and were able to get her front end moving. They finally hooked her to the winch on the truck. As they carefully inched her out, they kept pumping water down around her and slowly pulled her up on the bank.

“I never dreamed it, but once she got to the bank, she stood right up,” Minges said.

Conrad added, “We get a few calls like this every year, but this was one of the worst ones we’ve had for a while. Most times their feet are stuck, but her whole body was in the mud. She tried to move, but she was just going deeper. It wouldn’t have been long before her head would have been under. We have done it (these rescues) so much over the years that we’ve got the equipment made up to handle that kind of situation, whether it’s horses or cattle.”

The next day, Rosie, a 14-year-old shorthorn, was a little sore but resting comfortably in her stall. Colleen (Minges) Marker, Wally’s daughter, was with her. Colleen, who was not present at the rescue, had shown Rosie in 4-H.

“We went to a couple of Jackpot Shows and she did well in the breeds, she won a couple of classes,” Marker said. “At the Butler County Fair, she was Reserve Champion Overall. We took her to the North American International Livestock Exposition and she placed well.”

Minges said he was impressed with the rescue.

“I have always told them I wanted to watch them do that, but I didn’t want it to be one of mine,” he said.